Rent The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972)

Highly enjoyable ghost story from 1972 - British kids' drama at its best - The Amazing Mr. Blunden review by PV

This is what TV drama used to be like, before it decided that woke polemic and preachy pc sermonising was more important that telling a good story well, with an exploration of ideas and solid characterisation.

This `1972 TV film is from the golden age of such drama, especially children's TV drama which is now unwatchable, if it exists at all (most kids' TV is cheap digital Korean import cartoons, it seems).

Based on a children's book called The Ghosts, this is s genuinely entertaining film which had me hooked - far more so than the over-rated Railway Children from the same era (too soppy girly for my tastes). These days, the critics would call it old-fashioned and derivative - but that is precisely why it is so good.

Set in 1918 just after WWI and a century before. Yes, sentimental - but so what? Dickensian really. Think Oliver Twist's end.

Genuinely full of surprises and I had no idea how it would end (unlike most TV drama now). My favourite character has to be the hideous cook Mrs Wickens, played brilliantly by DIana Dors, no less. Some rather risque scenes, hints of a child brothel run by her, and some swearing mean it would probably not be made today - not like this anyway. No doubt they'd diversity-quota the cast too, I would not watch any remake. I detest socalled colourblind casting as in David Copperfield, a movie ruined by it., Charles Dickens was NOT Asian! And yes, it matters.

Anyway, I bet kids today would love this film too IF they could sit still long enough. It is worrying that many children now have never watched a film all the way through, as they just watch snippets, so goldfish-tiny is their attention span.

A brilliant film to watch at any time of year, especially Christmas (though no seasonal themes in it). Ghost stories are always fun at Christmas, I find, for some reason - maybe the winter dark and cold and candle light? Like A CHRISTMAS CAROL itself of course, the subheading of which is 'A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY'.

5 stars. I loved it., All of it.

I watched the end credits to try and find out where the film was made, which country house. But it just said made at Pinewood Studios. Hmmm... Looks like a real house to me though...

A curious ghost story from Lionel Jefferies - The Amazing Mr. Blunden review by JB

The Amazing Mr Blunden is a sweet-sad (but not entirely bittersweet), family-friendly, time-travelling ghost story set in 1818 and 1918. It's made by the late, great actor/writer/director Lionel Jefferies (who is probably more famous for writing/directing The Railway Children and appearing in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).

We follow a mother, Mrs Allen (Dorothy Alison) and her three children, who move from grubby 1918 London to a remote country pile to act as guardians of said estate. Whilst there, two of the children - Lucy (Lynne Frederick) and Jamie (Gary Miller) - befriend another young girl and boy. It turns out these new children are ghosts - of a sort - from 1818, where an unfortunate event occurred. Lucy and Gary set themselves on a mission to attempt to change the course of history to 'save' their new friends from an otherwise sad end.

Some - including film critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode- consider this is a forgotten classic. Perhaps it would work better as a film to watch with children or to re-watch if experienced in childhood - speaking as a childless (and possibly embittered) 30-something approaching it for the first time, I only enjoyed it up to a point. I liked Diana Dors as the grotesque housekeeper most of all, and the story was engaging enough. I sort of felt it was not one thing or t'other, though; not creepy/ghostly enough to compete with the great Victorian ghost stories, and a little bit too saccharine to leave much of a melancholy feeling despite an otherwise bittersweet story.

Also: the film is 'blessed' with a curious coda, where all the characters wave goodbye to the viewer, which was both very sweet and very awkward?!